The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
In general, a coupon is a certificate that entitles its holder to accept an offer described or referenced by the coupon. The offer, also subsequently referred to as the “coupon offer,” may be any type of offer, but is in general an offer by the coupon provider to provide a customer with one or more goods or services at a typically discounted price, or to provide the customer with a gift in exchange for the performance of an act, such as purchasing a good or service. A coupon often takes a “hard copy” form, such as a paper certificate, printed on which are images and/or text describing terms of the offer. The process of the user accepting a coupon offer by presenting, referencing, or otherwise providing a coupon while purchasing, contracting, or otherwise transacting with another party shall hereinafter be referred to as “redeeming” the coupon. For example, a customer may redeem a hard copy of a coupon by handing the copy to a clerk during a purchase at a retail store.
While coupons have conventionally been distributed to customers by hand, such as via mail or newspapers, recent distribution techniques now provide customers with opportunities to print their own coupons. For example, a number of websites provide search engines or browsable catalogs with which users may locate offers and then print coupons for the offers they find. Some of these websites may employ mechanisms to control the number of times that a given offer may be printed by a customer, by a device, and/or in aggregate. The printed coupons may be used in the same manner as any other coupon.
Other recent distribution techniques involve creating unique digital coupons. One such technique involves creating unique digital coupons that may be saved to an account associated with the user, such as a store loyalty account. The user may redeem such digital coupons during online or physical transactions by presenting an account identifier, such as a store loyalty card or an oral identification of the user's telephone number, for the associated account. Another such technique involves creating unique digital coupons that may be stored on a computing device. The digital coupons may be transmitted from the computing device to a point-of-sale during a transaction using any of a variety of mechanisms. For example, information about the digital coupon may be uploaded to the point-of-sale during an online transaction involving the computing device. As another example, information about the digital coupon may be transmitted wirelessly from a smartphone to a receiving component coupled to a checkout register during a transaction at a brick-and-mortar store.